The Original Faces of Death (1980) -Michael Carr (2)

Director: John Alan Schwartz

Stars:Michael Carr, Samuel Berkowitz and Mary Ellen Brighton

Genre:   Documentary | Horror


MPAA Rating: X


Running Time: 105 Mins


Tagline: "Banned In 46 Countries"

Synopsis:

{According to IMDB}

"A collection of death scenes, ranging from TV-material to home-made super-8 movies The common factor is death by some means."

discussion

I can’t believe that this is the documentary that was at one point banned in 46 countries; I really have a hard time believing it. Faces of Death, for one reason or another has become an infamous classic documentary (actually mockumentary) on the subject of death and afterlife. Most people who buy this movie are expecting: real, extreme, and gruesome footage of violence, carnage and ultimately…death. But when you actually sit down and watch this crap, you will notice that a vast majority of the footage is simulated. Roughly only 40% of the film is actually real “death” footage, the rest is a combination of footage that was simulated and inspired real events. In this review I will go over the plot and closely examine each scene presented in Faces of Death.

 

The footage for Faces of Death varies. I will try with my best judgment to explain which scenes are real and which are fake.  The director has said that only 40% is real, he will not elaborate which of those scenes are real. Since the director won’t elaborate, I will have to do so for the sake of argument. The movie is narrated by Dr Gross, a fake Doctor who has traveled the world, and is the one who collected the footage from the journeys he has done (so he claims) and explains with each scene what he witnessed and how little we have control over life, and that death is just around the corner.  The first shot is a surgery room where a patient is undergoing open heart surgery, this scene is in fact real, and it’s more than likely taken from operations done previously. The shot then transcends into the title credits and into more random shots of corpses in morgues; those scenes are also real. The opening credits conclude with an autopsy, I am positive that it is most likely real, I could be wrong.  The scenes followed involving dogs fighting, spiders attacking prey, snakes eating fish and indigenous people attacking animals is also real, but no different to what you would see in National Geographic The more gruesome scenes involving beheading of chickens, clubbing of seals, and cows at a slaughterhouse are the most difficult to watch, they are in fact real, they are all stock footage. Now there is a scene I would like to address that is entirely staged. The scene that I want to bring up is the infamous monkey brain scene, for some reason people think it is real, it is not, and it is actually staged.  The director himself admits that he could not get the actual footage on screen due to the fact that it is a common practice in Asian countries. To not face any issues with sues; he claims he decided to only film a simulated sequence.  The remaining footage involving a man on the beach dead after drinking too much and people committing suicide…I  have to say I am not sure, I think those could be real.  The one’s that are entirely fake are the alligator attack, the assignation of a politician, all the scenes involving the assassin Francois Jordan, and the ridiculous organ orgy scene.  The final scenes showing cadavers from World War 2 and the attacks on Vietnam are actual footage from that time, again stock footage neatly edited into Faces of Death. The remaining scenes involving the man parasailing some other cranial autopsy and an electric chair execution…I must say I am not sure. I leave that up to the audience to decide. I still think though, that the electric chair one has to be fake, it is illegal to shoot an execution here in the states. Anyways, let me know what you think, I would like to hear your insight on Faces of Death and it's sequels.

Faces of death was released during a time when internet was nonexistent. Websites like rotten.com and other macabre web pages weren’t available. This film broke the barrier at the time to show gruesome footage. The issue is that they marketed the film as an actual documentary, when by now the director himself has said that only some scenes are in fact real. The question is why go through the trouble of lying to the public? Why lie about it? Why not just release it as a fake death compilation? All good questions, but at the end of the day…Death is something that we are all curious about. Not just that, I think everyone, deep down inside, is sick enough to want to see what happened to someone during a brutal car accident, or a shark attack. In many ways, I don’t blame the director for releasing it as a real documentary. It serves people’s right to not tamper nor explores what will eventually happen to everyone inevitably.